Selling Overseas - Customs Declarations

[Jasmin]

Hello (again!). I've recently sold a few pieces abroad and have had to complete the little customs forms that attach to the parcel, and I'm always a little bit stumped as to the terminology to use when selling jewellery items because whilst I want to be 100% honest about the contents of the parcel, at the same time I don't want to draw too much attention to the fact that the contents may be quite valuable, in case it ends up in the hands of someone suffering from an insatiable "curiosity"...

So now my own curiosity is piqued - how do you describe the items you sell abroad, for customs purposes? Have you ever had any items go missing after stating, say, "silver jewellery"? Is there a better option? Or do you think it does not matter how you describe the contents seeing as the £ value is declared alongside the description?

Just interested in some of your views and experiences. Thank you, all!

Jasmin

[Wendy Moriarty]

I think I read elswhere that people put 'Trinkets' on the description
Wendy

[jille]

I was told to put key ring, I had some cheap ones so I added one to the pendant package in case it was scanned.
Jill

[Jasmin]

Thanks Jill and Wendy for your ideas. To be honest, [touching wood] nothing has gone missing yet so I guess I have to find the balance between taking a risk, or possibly sending everything by a registered & insured method. I just sent a tiny parcel to France today and, ok no declaration needed there, so it's just as an illustration of the cost, I sent it by a trackable method, insured it only to £100 and it cost me over £8! I'm sending a much bigger, costlier parcel to Australia tomorrow - be interesting to see the cost of that one! It's just that even with insurance, the comissions I get are one-off pieces and if they should go missing I would be devastated even if you can get back the cost, so I was hoping to minimise the risk to them, but every suggestion I was coming up with was ditched as probably totally illegal!

[iori]

Dear Jasmin,
You probably haven"t realised it yet but it is not actually your problem! Be polite,(and I"m sure you always are,) and discuss it with your customer, but I think you"ll find that "gift" or "sample" works fine, as for the value, that really is whatever you choose to put down. You are not breaking any laws, ( I am of course presuming that you are not an international criminal ! ) Everything is happening at the other end, you could ask your customer what they want you to put. I"ve sent some pretty expensive stuff abroad without any problem whatsoever.
Cheers,
Iori

[medusa]

hmmm... well actually if you send stuff as a sample or gift and it's not, technically it's fraud. For me, anything expensive that I send abroad is usually antique jewellery which is exempt from import taxes, so I send it as costume jewellery just to deter any would bees. so far nothing has gone astray yet.